The present invention is directed toward a lamp and more particularly toward a baseless lamp which can easily be moved from one place to another and which includes a support element which allows the lamp to be supported on a wide variety of support surfaces. The lamp of the present invention requires only an extremely narrow support surface and accordingly is well suited as a piano lamp.
Lamps of the general character of those described herein have been proposed in the past. One such lamp is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,950 . This lamp includes a supporting plate having a cushion layer of resilient material on the bottom side thereof. A first elongated tubular member extends downwardly from the supporting plate and has a counterweight at the lower end thereof. A second, upwardly extending tubular element extends upwardly from the supporting plate and has a lamp fixture fastened to the upper end thereof. The two elongated tubular elements are coaxial. This lamp is unsatisfactory for several reasons. Because of the shape of the supporting plate, the lamp can be supported in an upright position only if the support surface on which the lamp rests is horizontal. In addition, because of the shape of the supporting plate the support surface upon which the lamp rests must be relatively wide. Furthermore, while the counterweight may tend to prevent side to side pivotal movement of the lamp, it would not provide an adequate counterbalancing effect in the forward and/or backward directions. As a result, the lamp fixture must be mounted very close to the axis of the tubular support members and cannot extend too far outwardly therefrom. And, most importantly, the lamp described in patent 3,330,950 is relatively expensive to manufacture since it is comprised of several different parts which must be separately manufactured and then assembled.